Yvonne Cagle
All, right so. We're gonna start. It's. Really. To have dr.. K even. Cagle. With. Us today and. I'm. For was appalled I'm the executive, Dean of School of Engineering Applied, Sciences, this. Activity, here is under the auspices of our. Joint. Degree with the Graduate, School of Design some, of you know about it's called the master degree and. Design. Engineering, and. It's. Very different from any degree at Harvard it's a collaborative degree, and, collaborative. Degree means both. Professors. From two different schools come together to the class and work together and teach together which. Is really kind. Of very interesting experience, I teach myself there and quite a useful. In many different ways the. School this degree, was built ground-up, by faculty. From both schools we. Believe this is the best way of trying. To educate a, cohort of students, to learn how to problem-solve. And they. Come up with all kind of solutions, for all kind of open-ended, problem. Including things related, for instance this year last, year we did food for that system, as, a business, as a waste, as a nutrition, as many things this, year we're looking at problems, like related to. Technologies. For the elderly including. Things like loneliness, aside, from other medical problems so. We. We think this is a great degree and its uniqueness its, scope. And the Sonique, also on its own students, the students come from a different. Cohort, of, people. Who come from different areas. Including. Engineering, business, technologies. Architecture. And many others so. We're. Really fortunate to have dr.. Yvonne. Cagle, today with us. Our. Speaker, today combined. Two impressive careers. Most. Of us consider a career in medicine, as wonderful. Endeavor a, career. As a salon and as astronaut. Would be amazing you'd. Agree that but. Combining both is, really kind of, unbelievable. So. It. Looks like dr.. Cagle. Interest. In medicine started, early age, apparently. And it's not surprising her, father wasn't medicine, and her mother was in the Air Force so you could see where the, two tendons I guess scheme but. Apparently, as a young girl. She would sneak into her father's medical, library, spent. Hours looking at what x-ray.
Images, Now. She found these black and white x-ray images very inspiring, I guess and, she liked them and, she, said they intrigued me so, an, interesting her. First degree was in bio, chemistry. That she. Obtained it at San Francisco, State and. Then she moved to University, of Washington, for the medical school where she received her medical degree. However. The, medical school as we all know is expensive so, she obtained. A fellowship, from the Air Force scholarship. From where force where, she spent later, she had to spend several years in the Air Force and that really facilitated. Something else later, she get interested, in at. Brooks. Air Force Base in Texas this. Is where she's became, certified, flight surgeon, and enrolled. In many arab medicine, programs, and. She served as the medical. Liaison for, the Air Force and NASA for several years. She. Was working, at the Kelly. Sibbald. Clinic, at the NASA. Johnson. Space, Center. Where. She was an occupational medicine. Physicians. When nasa officials asked, her what. Would it take for her to live her beloved. Job and, do. Something, outside. That and. She, said a strawberry. Sundae, or got. Into space. The. Answer was we, cannot do anything, about the sundae but, we can do something about the other, so. That's how he entered, the, area, of as. Being. An astronaut, she flew several different sort of greens she. Served in the Air Force she, wanted the Gulf War. With the Air Force and. Finally. She applied for a precious, slot as, an astronaut, and, she got it. So. Dr.. Kegel. Has very impressive career in, the Air, Force and, she, obtained. Many awards, I come cite all of them takes me a while and we are not here to listen to me so. She, get out siding young, women. Of America, award she get the, National, Defense Service Award medal. She. Has, the medal, from the Air Force for achievements, and, several. Honorary degrees, from different, universities, and she. Has been really an amazing participant. In society, and a, service. For the country so, without further ado I'd like to introduce dr., Kara. Wow. Good, evening I tell. You this day has been a long time, in coming and. This evening seemed like it would never arrive, but it has I'm. Here, we're here, and the, fun is just starting I thank. You so much for your gracious, time in your attention, and I'm. Really looking forward to engaging in this conversation. I. Specifically. Asked, for design, engineering, because I wanted an integrated. Interdisciplinary. Collaborative. Effort, and so. I, feel. Very. Honored, very privileged, to be here and, would like to share and, engage some. Of my perspectives, and experiences, but. More than anything else become, your friend. So. With. That. Let's. Get started talking. About collaborative. Ideas, and. Design. You. Know 50. Years ago. They. Said it was impossible. To. Walk on the moon. Yet. A dedicated. Academy. Of precision. Professionals. Came together and, they. Were actually. Able to. By. Way of. Space. Vision, and space technology. Launch. Us in, less. Than 10 minutes, into. Space, in less, than 90. Minutes from liftoff. Around. The, earth in, orbit and, in. Less than three days land, us on the moon all. By. Way of. Working. Together and believing in the impossible, they. Said it couldn't be done and. Today. We, continue to pursue, by. Way of things like the space shuttle and. 17,500. Miles. Per hour. Coming. Off of seven, and a half million.
Pounds. Of thrust. Where. There's so much energy. That. It, could ignite the fireworks, and. Every. Olympic. City, that. Is hosting, the Olympic Games. All. Of this is under, your seat. Where. The sheer force, of the vibration, is so great that you never actually see. Your first launch. You're. Eyes are, closed, so tight that the only thing you can remember. Is. What. You experienced. You. Experienced, that, first. Launch. This. Is what it's like to. Not only dream, but. To train and aspire, for, something. Even. Greater, than. What's possible. You're. Launched, and best. Of all it's. Been eight. Minutes and 30 seconds, and as. You unbuckle, your seatbelt you're 250. Miles above the earth going. 17,500. Miles per hour on your way to Mach 25, and, as. You, step. Out of your seat. You're. Floating, the. First word out of your mouth is whoa. Guess. What the second word. Whoa. This. Is what it's like or. A story, Musgrave one of my favorite astronauts, said it's. Like, skating. On glass. So. How does one, get. To, float. In less than 10 minutes. 250. Miles above the earth with the view on science, technology. Engineering, art. Math steam. Of you on Steam or as, I like to say teams, much more collaborative, technology. Engineering, art math and science. Through. The lens of weightlessness. Well. For me it. Was all about trying to make sure I moved. At Mach, 25, my. Tricycle wasn't, fast enough, there. Wasn't a spaceship, that quite could get me as far as I wanted to go and I. Wanted to take it a step beyond. It. All start at the top of an old oak tree July 1969. One hot summer night. When. I was trying, to break the record for hind go seek everybody who was looking east and west but really, nobody was thinking to look north, and that's. Where I was hiding three. Hours into it I hear a voice calling my name, destiny. Had, to be the only reason I would come down and and not make that record and I heard. That name called Yvonne Yvonne Yvonne. And. Shirley, I was ready to take that giant leap until, I recognized, that that voice was.
Just My dad telling me to come down from, the tree and come, inside I tell you told, him it better, be really good or else this was the last time I'd listen to him and obviously. It must have been pretty epic because, I'm still listening to him today. So. Instead of taking that giant, leap which probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. At. The age of 10, or even. Worse at the top of an old oak tree at any age I came. Down came. Inside where. He saw silently, pointed, at this grainy. Image, back then on an old TV. Black-and-white. Very, grainy rabbit, ear antennas my. Job in the family of six kids was to, sort of position, the, antenna for the entire edge Sullivan Show and but. I wasn't being asked to do that I was meeting us just to look at the screen and that grainy image, as I made it out my. Dad. Said. That is human, that. Is man walking, on the moon. For. The very first. Time. Immediately. I ran. Outside and looked, at the moon because I had just been talking to the man on the moon Dancing with the Stars and I had. To see this happening, firsthand and oh my. Gosh guess what I saw. Nothing. So. Him right back outside to make sure he was still on TV, and sure enough he's, still bouncing around walking on the moon so I ran back outside to see if I could see him and guess what I saw. Nothing. I did. It again in okay, folks ten twenty twenty five star I never, really saw anything, but. After a while I realized, that what was more. Amazing. Than. What human. Must look like walking, on the moon is, what. I must, look like to, human. Granted, a silly. Ten-year-old. Girl running in and out trying, to see a man on the moon, when. I must look like from. That view on the moon looking back on Earth and at that moment my dreams took wings and I knew then that I, to. One, day wanted. To see my. Footprint, on. The, moon. Fast. Forward. Undergraduate. Biochemistry. On to the University, of Washington School of Medicine, where in my medical degree on. An Air Force scholarship, and spent the next 22, years yanking, and banking and a, wide variety of. High-performance. Aircraft from. F-111s. To f-15s. F-16s f-18s. Heavy helicopters, aerial refuelers, medevacs. You name it anything going to altitude I wanted to be in it. 22. Years later rising. To the rank of full colonel, as a senior flight surgeon, it couldn't. Get any better than that except. For one thing. 15. Years of it. 15. Years into it I realized that I actually had, intended, to be an astronaut, kind. Of was having a lot fun and it slipped. My mind it didn't actually slip my mind but you know at that time it. Was a different world and 15. Years I still, wasn't able to put my dream at, rest so. At that 15, year we call it the career mark I thought. Wow, you know these Jets as amazing, as they are they. Don't seem to go quite. Fast. Enough. Nor. Quite. High. Enough I knew. Then that the only way to go was up and at that time the only way to get there was the Space Shuttle the Space Shuttle if I could put. Poetry. To motion, I would call it the Space Shuttle with, the space transportation, system. Because. In less. Than 10 minutes, it's placing, you at Mach 25 and. You're. Seeing, the world go by literally.
Floating. The entire time, that's. Poetry. In, motion. So. We've come a long way. We've. Come from. Placing. The, first human. Handprint, on a cave in France. 30,000. Years upward ago. All. The way to. That, first footprint, on the, moon and. Yet. Our journey, has just begun. Because. Folks, we're. Going to Mars we, are scheduled. For, 2035. Go. Ahead and mark your calendars, in case you don't have anything booked yet. But. In order to be ready, we're. Going by way of yes, we're going back to the moon back to the moon in. 2024. A mere, six years from now we. Will be returning for the first time, to do two cislunar missions, each. One lasting, 30, days and that's. To prepare us for that long journey to Mars a journey. That will take most. Cases nine months, with, the window that only comes around about every 18 months but, working on different propulsions. That might reduce that time to six months in. The. Meantime we. Want to test systems, we, want to test system integrations. In particular the, vehicle, satellites. Communications. To, make sure that they're going to be robust. So, this time when we go back to the moon we'll also be going to the Dark Side of the Moon meaning, the, side of the moon the back side where, we haven't vetted communications. Yet we. Want to make sure that we can reach back and talk to home from, all trajectories and. Orientations. But we're not just looking at systems, for robotics. Vehicle, satellites, communication, we're. Also looking at the human system, here. We have Smithsonian. Rex we've. Been able to in so many levels. Replace. Or test, or create, simulations. Of the human body with, robotic, platforms. Eyes. That, have special, ocular. Implants. Ears. That, have the, ability to. Hear. Speech. That can be synthesized. Blood. That. Can be circulated. Throughout the tissue in the lungs, synthetic, lungs, heart liver spleen, and, even. Limbs that are robotic and are able to grasp, and rotate, in 26. Degrees of rotation. For the the wrists and the, hands just one degree short of the human body a spine. That can support you legs with shock absorbers, now. Many, of the robotics, right here in the Boston area are. Also evolving, upon this nASA has, Valkyrie. A new robot, the first woman, robot, who. I saw today and, is really doing some amazing things so. We're getting the race one when it comes to robotics, but, going into space and exploration, isn't. Just about sending. Robotic, capabilities it's.
Collaborative. But. The human heart. Was. Born to explore, and. The. Only way to, know is, to, go. So. To that end we'll. Be looking at in testing, and verifying. The human system, everything. From the human genome we. Just had twin studies sending a twin to space, who, came back showing, that the genome had, shifted, had altered, that. The, gene. Expression of, certain proteins changed, after almost. A year in space, that. The twin is no, longer technically, a twin, anymore. So. We'll be looking at how, the human genome changes. With long duration and, weightlessness and. Exposed, to radiation and, all, the different things that we'll find when, we're living and working and traveling through, space, we'll. Be looking at many, systems, of the human body that, include, the. Heart the. Lung. The. Bones the. Muscle, but. Equally. Important, is a, mind the, behavior, the, spirit, the, soul, so. We're looking at behavioral, wellness, and what. Neuro, scientific, neuro. Metric, markers. May. Be able to serve as early, indications. Of behavioral. Drift for. Better or for worse but, neurocognitive. Stressors. When you're in a remote, isolated. Environment. Have, many analogs here, on earth be. It aging. Military. Deployments. Extreme. Adventures. Submariners. Arctic. And Antarctic, or we call them polar. Simulations. Or bio habitats. Many. Correlations. But. The major differences. Are, in space you're weightless. That's, a cool stressor but it, also takes three times as long to do things and you can't just open a window or a door when you need to take a deep, breath or get, some fresh air, so. We look at all of those things and how, we can work to, not only identify them, but, mitigate, or train, or, track. Them in a way that, we can intervene. So that we can maintain harmony, throughout, the crew mission, safety, and mission success. But. Not all stressors, are bad there's, something called saludo genex which. Is when you're in an extreme, environment that. Some stressors, can actually. Foster. Independence. Self-reliance. Inner dependency. Within, a group that, can build, resiliency. For the individual, the group and group cohesiveness, so. We're also looking at those sorts of changes as well so. It's important, to know that when, humans, go it's, the whole body the mind the, body and the soul. But. One of our biggest challenges, is. Going to be finding ways to treat illness, and injury, the. NASA bio capsule, is an inert vessel. Or. I should say capsule, that, slips, under the skin and can, be placed in different portions of the body and can. Not only detect, certain. Infections. Illnesses, cancers. Diabetes. But. It can actually treat, be, a delivery system for medication. But. There are so many things that challenge the body early. On this, is what we call the iron, apron. Which, is a way, of trying to push the. Body's blood. Back. Up into the. Torso in the head when it pulls in the legs. It's. Trying to normalize things, in space so, when you're in space, your. Blood, volume actually, floats towards, your head and -, and and accumulates, in your chest so. It's important, to kind. Of balance that out to, have a negative pressure, system, that can suck it back down and that's what the iron apron, does when, you're in space so. That when you come back you. Are, able to continue. To perform while you're upright without. Becoming. Lightheaded, or passing. Out we. Can train this on the ground before you even. Go to space to induce, that that, stress, or that load to, bill your build, your tone or your resiliency. But. The bigger challenge, we actually, have his, muscle, and bone, so. As I said in only eight minutes and 30 seconds. You're 250, miles above the earth going. Mach 25, and you're, floating. Doesn't. Get any better than that but. At only 8, minutes, and 31, seconds. You. Are already. Losing. The space race. Physiologically. Because of physiologic. Gradient. Immediately. Upon weightlessness. Shifts. Just like a wave, does in the ocean where 70%, water and we, get that same kind of wave transition.
Or Upheaval. So. What happens, when. You enter into space it's a physiologic. Equivalent. Of having, run, 640k. Marathons. And each. Time somebody tapping you on the shoulder and going great race but, your finish line is a starting, line start, all over again, so. Your body is really working and over. Time your, muscles, weaken, atrophy. Your, bones start to thin, out or do mineralize. And that. Creates, difficulties. When you're needing to move, about be, it for your day-to-day living put on a spacesuit, or, do emergency, procedures. Now. That's the challenge we have on a good day on a bad. Day, a, simple. Sprain can. Really, incapacitate. You because. After three months of weightlessness, even. Your growth hormone starts. To diminish and. Over. Time you can lose up to 10% of your muscle mass and strength, when. That happens, in six. Days, after. Your growth hormone starts, to drop off in only six days you, already. Start, to weaken, and if, you have an injury, or a simple sprain, six. Days can be the difference between you, being a visitor. To Mars or, being, a colonizer. Because. You're not able to climb back on to the. Spaceship, so. It's very important, that we find ways to rescue. Ourselves should we have illness, or injury in space. So. Looking through the, lens. Of Mars at. What seems impossible, how. Are we not going to injure, ourselves is. There. A solution, on, earth that we can look to is there a solution and what we call earth, exploration. There, are so many benefits that, we've learned in going to space the, we can bring back down to earth because. Space is no longer just a destination. It, is a journey, it's a demonstration. Platform. For so many technologies and capabilities, but. Are there things here on earth that. Can help us in space in particular, when. Our bodies become weak or injured. Well. Yes. There is it's. Called lift. What. Is lift lift is taking, weeks of therapy and, reducing. It, today's. Days, of pain in two. Minutes. Lift. Is something, that was developed. And refined over, 30 plus years, and. Appears. To be able to accelerate, the restoration. And resiliency. Of. Inflamed. Sprains. And strains on, the limbs, that. May be days or decades. Old and in. Most cases in, just a matter of minutes. How. Does it work well, first of all it took a lot of work to get there, 25. Years of biochemistry. And all. Told about 30 years of design, engineering. Starting. With trying to solve a problem and, realizing. That the solution, lies in our. Own bodies, our. Body already does this naturally, so, how can we, amplify, or. Augment, that and that's. What lifts basically, does it. Regenerative. Lee takes. The energy. From. Injury. And. Uses. It to mobilize, and. Rebalance. Injured. And inflamed tissue so, that the injury, is able, to self-correct. Correct. Itself. It's. Pretty remarkable. What. Does it look like well. Ask. Me what 10 minutes looks like. Here. We have a. Sprained. Knee pretty. Evident a lot. Of bleeding and swelling, no. Fracture, or problem. On the x-ray, but. Certainly a lot, of pain upwards, of 8 9, out. Of 10. Pain. Difficulty. Weight-bearing, locking, the knee walking, this. Would normally take several. Weeks six weeks six to ten weeks in order to correct. Here's. Your after picture, the. Bruise will take a little bit of time to go away but the swelling is noticeably, down knee is locked there's no pain and they're running stairs. That's. What 10 minutes looks like. It's. Not me, it's. Not man, it's. Not medicine. It's. Wearable, you. Yes. A wearable. Solution. For. You and. It's. Innovative, it's. Transformative.
And. It's. Here right. Here, fits. In a little case. Studies. Pending, but, if you want to know more about it please don't, hesitate to. See me afterwards. But. You know what. I really, want a spotlight, is, more than just the body's amazing, capacity to. Heal itself. What. I really, want to talk about is a power. Possessed. In the pursuit, of the. Impossible. In. A. World that seems, like. It's gone awry there. Are actually, at least two things, that. We all still, have control over. What. We believe and. What. We dream and. If. You put the two together you. Can empower, yourself, to, the point where even the impossible. Has. Potential. Because. Really what, is the impossible, anyway, if, you. Decode, the word impossible what do you get i. M. Possible. So. In closing. What. Dream, and, what. Dream. Trajectory. Do. You believe in enough. That could possibly. Course correct. This. Mothership. We call earth and. Conceivably. Change. The. Course of time. How. Do you do it well. As. An astronaut, I'd like to say it's not all that difficult. Because. All you have to do is. Bring. Poetry. In motion. Back. Down to earth and, then. Use, it to relaunch, your dream. Back. To the moon on. To. Mars. And. Push. Your potential. Push. Your, envelope. Somewhere. Far and beyond. Whatever. Lies just, on. The. Other side, of. The. I. M. Possible. Thank. You an autist. Rack. And. While you're thinking of questions. I'd. Like to share with you kind of that journey in in developing, innovation, because when you're. In something like design engineering, and I envy you I actually wish that instead of being up here I was in the, seat where each of you are and for, me that journey. Started, way, back in high school physics. And. And. It. Continued. Through my girl-scout years, when, I was, learning all about adventure and, traveling and hiking then. At the University of Washington, I. Was. Part of a program called whammy. Where you could train throughout the Washington Alaska Montana Idaho area so I did trauma and rescue in the. Desert, Montana, Alaska. And we were always given, some very sophisticated, equipment. But, it never failed the air compressor, didn't work, at. Altitude, there were no plugs in the desert and pretty, much all you had was the mast rousers, to use as really. The first wearable so. We would find ways to creatively wrap. Load, and go and even. Your boot was. A lifesaver, because you, just didn't want to take that off it really contained, injury, and swelling and inflammation quite, a bit, so. Over the years I carried that with me as a flight surgeon and, going to rescue, areas, in, accident, scenes I was, able to continue, to evolve, that now I love doing that you, know as a girl scout in medical school. And. And. In, the Air Force but. I really wanted to take it as I said faster. Higher, and, more, of a challenge really touch, the edge of the impossible, and so, I thought no better place than Mars, and, when. I decided, that I wanted to, really, find a way to solve a problem I went, back into that. Dream, of the impossible, and all of the learning and experience, that came up through the years and I, use that, knowledge, to. Really. Think. About how. You can have a. Self-rescue, device, that, is not powered, that, is made up of parts, of the spaceship, itself or the packaging. Or, the, cargo. Material. Because. That's all you've got to work with or your own suit and that. It, had to be something that was simple, that. You could do it even if you were really decondition, but, it had to be fast, because. You're losing muscle, over a, six, day period of time and. When. You put all of that together it. Looks impossible. But. When you really think about how. Nature does it how our bodies do it, and.
The Whole concept of, design, engineering. It's. Doable, and it's, really. Transformative, so, we've been really. Helping so many people and, so many walks of lives. And. Now we're ready to take it faster, higher, and, see. If we can do something to. Not. Just help the mission but. In learning how to help the mission bring it back and help, those in underdeveloped. Countries. Disaster, situations, any. Situation. Where someone. Needs rapid, self rescue but. Doesn't have access to, the resources, or. The. Equipment, to. Regain, their. Resiliency. So, that's, kind of the story behind that. Can. I Tyga thank you. Again for being here, I'm. Wondering, if you could talk a little bit more about the. Role that robots. Will play in the. Next mission the I think 2024. Mission that you brought up and maybe, the relationship between. Those. Robots, and the, humans, that. May be accompanying. Them on the journey or working. Together for, that mission outstanding. Question. The. Way that it the robotic, conversation, evolved, was for. The longest time there's a question about robots, or humans robots or humans and I never felt like that was a question so now we evolved, to the point where. It's really a cooperative. Collaborative. Effort. There, are some things that robots do very well very, reliably, very reproducibly. And, there were some things that the, human mind and experience. Does. In a very innovative. Quickly. Adaptive, fashion, so. Although ultimately we. Plan on having shared. Operations. Where, a, lot of the. Work. And maintenance. And housekeeping. Or. Risky, things can be done by, robots and, that, frees, it up for, human. Crews to be able to do so. Much more of the innovation. And the science, and the engineering and. It, really is a great opportunity to, make. The scope, of astronaut. Experience. Even broader, because, we're offloading, a lot of the busy work that we're doing right now on station, but, the more important, role, that the robots will play especially, in the upcoming missions cislunar, and Mars is they'll, be precursor. Missions, even, before we go in 2024. Will be sending robotic, capabilities, ahead. Of us who, can actually start, to set things up, 3d. Print, start. To build or put together habitats. I always, say if you're going to do an expedition, off. The planet, you, have to figure out how to build your house when. You can't go outside, that's. The challenge for humans, but robots can do that they can go in and out like that silly, ten-year-old, girl. Be building, the facility, so, that when we do go then. Our fuel, depots, our, habitats. Our. Equipment. Will. Already be up, and running and ready to go along with some life-support, systems it's, the best Welcome Wagon you'll probably ever run into on, this planet or off. Very. Fascinating, vision. Yes. Thank. You again for your talk it was amazing. And my question, is about the twins. That you said one of them, have. Been changed, after a year being in this space which I think you are talking about astronaut, Kelly yes, so. What, kind of change is that does it have an effect on his, personal. Life or daily, normal life we're. Still sorting, out the details on that, so. But. What he has described, is that when he came back he was significantly. Deconditioned. And that's, one of the reasons that we decided, to, pursue. Or, continue, pursuing a lunar mission first, because. We do have to figure out how to keep the body robust. And resilient. In that way it, took him an, extended, period of time to rehabilitate. And, and, it was very noticeable to. Him. As. Important, of mission, success is the, the. Satisfaction. Or the. Ability of the, crewmember, to reintegrate into, their families and societies, and their quality of life and that can be very impede. Or impaired, when, you're incredibly. Deconditioned. As you can imagine from. Any kind of illness or injury but this, isn't that this is just you, know being in space for a long period of time being in weightlessness. The. Other thing that he said which was very interesting, what, was even more challenging. Were. Some of the psychologic. Drifts. And conditions, that he experienced. And he said even, more than the physical impacts we really do need to get our arms around the.
Psychological. Experiences. And transitions. That happen. Not. Unlike we see with our deployments. Or people and our polar, habitat so we're doing more of those simulations, but. It is something that needs to be anticipated. And prepared. For so, for. That reason that's. Another system that we're going to be really. Focusing, on as well. Along. The side of this identical, twin you mentioned, about the identical Priene twing is no longer identical. So, is that something reversible. That's. One question second, question is does the, human body adapt, to the weightless conditions so, the loss of muscle. Or bone stopped, at one point or just continue to lose it excellent, question so the first question are. Those genetic, changes. That have, been detected are they reversible, we. Don't know yet. But. The. Way that genes, work. Your. DNA and everything they create, these genes, and genes express, certain proteins, that give you the characteristics, that, you see and so. It'll. Be interesting to see at, what levels those changes, occurred were they in the, nucleotide. Based sequences. Of the DNA and the chromosomes or were, they more in the enzymes, or the genes themselves in, what. They expressed. And gene, expression, responds. To your environment it it responds to radiation. It responds, to loads. It. Responds. To nutrition. Things inside, and outside of the body so. It'll be interesting to see. Based. On the other twin, if. Any, of that does start. To change back, in what it's expressing, now that it's come into a different environment I think. That's a fascinating question, is to see what, is really nascent. To. Weightlessness. And you. Know the, environment, of space and radiation and what, has that kind, of resiliency. Or reversibility, that. Can kind of reset, or change once. You change. That environment. Fascinating. Question. Yes. Sir. Thanks. For the talk and. Recently. I'm just working on a prosthetics, project my back by myself and I just wondered, what was your most, credible. And reliable advisor, at a nice space, my. Most reliable what ends me devices. In space Oh prosthetic, and. Before. I answer that question let me just hop, back because. It actually relates to your question in. Terms of do, the changes that we see in muscle and bone do they. Plateau. Off, and for, short duration, missions, anywhere. From two weeks three, months even, six months we, do see that the muscle loss seems to plateau off. At, about 10% both. Mass and strength in. Bone in particular you. Lose about one percent a month but somewhere around, 17. Percent, then. It seems like it plateaus, off now. That, means that there's probably some early acceleration. Or maybe. You're pretty resilient at the beginning of losing bone but it's kind of like a drain as you start to reach. A critical threshold, you start to lose much, more rapidly, but, it seems when you hit that 17, percent that, it plateaus off. However. We don't know what will happen if suddenly, you change the environment or, you're in space for, a longer, period of time in transit, to Mars will, again those genes or, those enzymes. Reactivate. And start, to say we're. In weightless there's no resistance, we don't need this extra mass, and bone and that, start to activate, or reactivate. The, loss that's going on so. That's, one of the things we hope to. Determine. Again. With a 30-day, lunar. Based mission. And. Then, in terms of in space our best. Prosthetic. Or. Best tool. Let's. See we. Haven't had. The need need, necessarily. Of. Human. Prosthetics, at this point although robots. Will be a whole different, equation. But. We have used, some of those space concepts, to help with load balancing. And strategies, and shifting. Of center of gravity. That, we. Have to adjust for in space and. That's developed, understanding. And. Protocols. And solutions. That we can actually use to refine prosthetics. Right, here on earth so, with the robot earlier today the NASA robot, Valkyrie, was amazing, because a robot actually. Walks differently, than a human, does you, know we turn to tend to do heel, to toe and when, we take, that when we're going to take a step we, don't just take. The weight, off we, transfer, the weight to, the foot that hasn't even planted, yet and that's kind of risky but, the way the robot works, is the. Leg. The foot will raise but, all the weight is still there until, the robot is able to gauge that okay, the balance is good the terrain is good this is going to be a good plant. So. That might be something that we incorporate, and some of our mobility devices, with, individuals. Who. Have mobility. Issues here. And also, the way that the robot shifts, the center of gravity. Is. Very fascinating, because we can use that for load balancing, again for transfer. Issues, the.
Best Tools that we found that, we're finding. Tend. To be. Tools. That we can 3d print so. Wrenches. And nuts and bolts and sockets, and in particular. Medical. Equipment. Is. Very amenable, to 3d printing and 3d design and. What we really, love about 3d, printers, is, that you can innovate on the, spot you can design on the spot so when you're in weightlessness the tool that you need may. Look very different than, the, way it's used in earth and you, can redesign, a, wrench or a socket or, something, that can be very customized. For, not. Only what the interface is not. Only the. Environment. Of something. Floating you may want it angled, but, also your floating to so you're coming at your workspace, or your work surface, at a different orientation and, you, may need a tool with a different, angle or curvature to help you, engage. That. So. All those things I think are really fascinating. And you all are in a position to design to. Design a way I think you should all be astronaut, so that you can make sure we have the tools that we need will. Consign, or Commission you all I have. A question can related, to these stresses, you, mentioned, that gravity. Of course as a way of expressing. Some stresses have, you or, anyone have studied the effect of other stresses, like electromagnetic. Fields. Affecting, our bodies in any fashion and it will be very different probably, on Mars and. Sun. Well. We see a number of things and first, of all in weightlessness. Everything. Floats things outside of your body float and things inside your body float so we're now doing earth, normal. Ultrasounds. To find, out what our earth. Normal, or earth-based, positions, of our organs are because. When you go into space if you don't and append the situs or something happens, and somebody has to go in and do, in, most cases we're going to do laparoscopic. So through a scope some, kind of surgery and we need to access that organ, we, need to have an idea of where it floated to so after you get into space and we really. Sound just to know what your space normal, look. Is like so you kind, of change, we're going to in searches in, search of aliens but we, change so much that maybe the alien we go in search of is ourselves so, that's one thing is we we need to know what, that kind. Of MapQuest. Look. Is of our organs. But. The other thing that happens, is because of the weightlessness. Of space. Radiation. Nutritional. Changes the changes in our microbiome, meaning, those organisms, that live within us those. Things change so in so many ways not just our DNA, not just our genes, but, our organs, our intestinal. Flora the, microbes, that are in our bodies all these things change so, we really are a different person, when, we come, back home, but, those things will also stress, your immune system. So. That you've got this immuno, strain going on you're much more vulnerable to colds. And viruses and. Latent, viruses, and at increased risk of certain kind. Of late cancers, and, because you're in a confined environment if, one. Person gets sick then. Everybody. Is at greater risk to get 6 so our infection. Surveillance and, control before during, and after we come back is, is, really important. So. Yeah. It's it's a fascinating very, dynamic, look which, is why if I ever get boots on Mars I.
Don't, Want to visit I want to colonize, because, the only way you're really going to see the end of the movie is to, be there and watch it evolve in front of you so I'll be there your welcoming committee I. Look. The same I won't behave the same trust me. I. Guess. Related, to that how. Do you see, the, the, colony, looking, I mean as an architecture. And urban design student, is fascinating, the idea of these uh these. Robots kind of having designed, and built the city before or the, colony, before we even get there but is there is NASA, looking, at the actual design of that and how does the gravity, atmosphere. Affect. The architecture, and I see, how do you see it great questions. Yeah. So fascinating. There are actually, simulations. Where they're building robotic, cities, you, know smart. Cities, and using, robots to do the design to test today so, we're watching those very closely. Bigelow. Has inflatable. Habitats. Kind, of like you. Know for. Those of you remember. The eye. I know Lincoln, Logs I'm dating myself but you know where you used to plug, them together the, different. As. A kid well now they have an inflatable version. That you can make different modules, and habitats, and those are already, being used in space by NASA as cargo income. 2020. Bigelow. Is going to have an even larger one that we could actually use you, know for human. Habitation. We were already put in life-support, systems, we've been having astronauts go in them in order, to test the environment. You know with sensors, and take different readings, but. Those are the kind of habitats, we're looking at right now inflatable. Habitats. But. Ultimately, for, colonization, and as we build cities and all I think, the fascinating. View would be some kind of geodesic. Design something. That's frictionless. Weightless. And, the question, is is it going to be above or below ground because. Radiation is a problem, and although. Water is one of the best combatants. Against or protectants, against radiation a lot, of weight a lot of uplift you want to make orbit so we really have to find the water where we're going. But. One of the ways to. Protect. From. Radiation may. Be to. Have you. Know caves, or more, like. To. Go underground, and, have, that as being your living City so. Different, ways we can do it also the regolith of the. Moon regolith, is, moon. Dust, moon, dirt basically. And. That. Has, some radiation, protective. Qualities, as, well, we. Can do titanium. Polycarbonates. Aluminum. I'm, just throwing all that out there to you design, engineers, just so you know that those, are just the options we know and, everyday we're coming up with smart materials, and textiles, that are lightweight and, you. Know malleable. So, who. Knows, anything's. Possible. Referencing. Your, comment, that we, might be the alien and. Thinking. About how artists. And science fiction writers, have often, been the ones to float ideas, that. Made it comfortable for us to think about some of these things and. Then, blend, them in with what science, is actually doing or thinking. We. Look, at this twin with a change. Genetic. DNA. What. Have we seen, that might be an upside. To. The change in the human body I mean if the human body is going to change and we're. Trying to figure out how to stabilize that or pause it or. Restart. It, what. If it went on, could. There be changes. Could be positive. To. Enable, us to go then and do what we need to do absolutely, the, whole reason, that the body changes, is that it's trying to adapt to its environment and, build up its strength and resiliency, so, the body isn't really working, against. Us it's not so much our alien it's our friend it's saying that I'm, not going to give you a whole lot more workload, with all this muscle and bone I'm gonna loosen it lighten, it up because. It doesn't know you have an intention of returning back to gravity, or going to alter gravity environments. Or coming back home, and, that's the efficient, way the body is always working towards efficiency, so. If, you have a colonizer. Or somebody who's going to continue, to travel, interstellar. Li then. They, over, time will evolve and, look different, and. Be, very efficient, for their, environment. And. So it'll be interesting to see what happens when we start having families. Because. Those, things happen at a very early stage, so. You. Know there are changes that may occur in the womb that will. Create. A different look performance. And capability. We. Interpret. Everything, here, on earth through the lens of gravity, but.
I Got to tell you if you do the math the best astronauts, are not your. Gold. Medal Olympic. Runner. Swimmers, and other athletes. It's. It's. Going to be somebody who may. Have spent the majority of their life works in a period of time in a wheelchair and their. Body has changed and, adapt, adapted. And they, have tremendous not, only upper body strength but their, brain has neurocognitive. Ly upper. Body strategy. It knows how to think, with. The upper body in space your legs are a liability they're, just a plasma, volume sump. There's. No weight in space but if there was the closest thing we would look like the legs and, but we think in terms of our legs our mobility our transfer. Or prosthetics, how we move about I love, 3d printers, because. Somebody. Gets a sprained finger, or an ankle now we have something that can turn that around potentially. In a matter of minutes so it may be a move point but. We. Can customize, a splint, or a brace, or something like that on the top on, the spot it's going to save a lot of space, and up-mass as we go but. I. Think, the body is going to sort of naturally, find its own way to. Build its strength in its resiliency. So, if somebody has been, in space for an extended, period of time it'll be interesting to see if their life-support requirements. Are the same maybe. They'll need, less oxygen less. Water maybe they'll be more tolerant, being outside, and, and. And, somebody who has lived their life in a wheelchair, they. May know how to have a space braid, and think about how to efficiently move, and, engage. And, problem-solve. Much. More effectively. And faster, than, us who, wait till our legs get us to where we need to be and then, they position, us and we've. Got a tool that's based on a. Leg, brain that, was vetted. In earth so. It's a whole different world, yeah. I would. I would, say our instructors, here on earth would probably, be. Those. Folks who don't. Necessarily get, the credit in the intent in the attention, for the subject matter experts, that they are living. In an upper body world or a sensory. Dampened, world in space vacuum, so. Sound, is going to be dampened, it's going to be dark and dim so, somebody, whose vision isn't so great but has adapted, to that here on earth all, of these folks will be our subject matter experts when, we go to space. That. Question. There. Is none. There. Is one. Hi. Thank, you so much for coming this is so cool hey. Do. I think that's. Two - do we have three four. Twelve, okay. I was, wondering like what are the different, things you have to do for like sleep because I know that like sleep cycles, are like really weird when you're like up in space and I know that like space, travel is very different, but like Mars has like a different like time. Of like day and night cycle so, like what are like different ways of like I don't know they, have to deal with like alertness or like performance, when like the light is different right, that's. That's probably, one of the biggest problems, that. You. Know adds to the behavioral. Drift from, neurocognitive, stressors. It's going to be sleep and sensory, deprivation. And. The sleep is partly, because remember the slide where, you, take, your seat belt off and you're floating and the AH that's. Sort of yeah and the first word out of your mouth is whoa well. That stays, and that stays, 24/7. It's just like your brain is just like, wow. This is awesome, this is cool right and, so, it's hard to sleep so we know that our sleep cycle, is very much truncated. Meaning it's narrowed, it's it's. Telescoped. It's reduced, and we know on average, a good night's sleep at best it's probably, only six hours well. We don't know what, we do know but. A large part of that is just the, excitement I mean you're in space who wants to sleep you don't want to miss anything. But. Also there's something in, the there's a circadian, misalignment. Misalignment. With light, darts cycles, in the neuro, hormones, that the pituitary, and, hypothalamus. And. Other regulatory. Organs. Are. Affected by, and, your melatonin as, well, we. Don't have a handle on all of that we don't fully understand. It but, that doesn't mean that. We. Can't try, different, things that, can. Be. A potential, solution or, at least improve, so we try to do different things with the lighting. We have certain light values, that we use and even, autumn. We're, looking at automated, dimmer switches that. Can dim the station, at different times to sort of give you that sense of night, day the, problem is he, most, cases you have two, shifts, and so.
If You've got shifts. That are you know 180 to eachother then. It's hard to, control. What that. Day/night. Cycle, is going to look like so. It may be something that you can only do in the sleep cabin, because if you dim. The switch at a time when the night, shift is needing to work and see things that can be a safety and performance issue, as well so, we're kind of looking at those different, sorts of things and the lighting is important, too for the plants that were growing as well because, all, life requires, this kind of you, know light dark day/night, cycle, and, your whole. Metabolic. System, your bio rhythm is tied to that as well and if you don't have that it's, interesting in space you know there's not a lot of that so it's not surprising, life, isn't rampid, but, certainly, over time if you lose that ability fears. If you develop. That circadian misalignment and. You lose that cycling, ability, that. Can be very stressful we, see cortisol, levels go up and there's, something called adrenal fatigue or, adrenal failure, where. You're just kind of in overdrive, and histamine, is just churning away and it, starts to take its, toll, and have effects on your your, health, and wellness. Let. Alone your, performance. And your, behavioral. Coherence. Great. Question. Exercise. Nutrition, eating, right magnesium. All those things are. Really important, to help with sleep as well now, it's not just it's. Not so much how long you sleep although it's important, but, it's also the quality of sleep so you've got to get through all the stages of sleep so. That you can get into your deep sleep which, is not REM it's, after, it's, after red, it's. That kind of deep restorative. Sleep and so. If you don't get down that far. You. Know then, you really are not kind, of refreshing, your glymphatic squeal. And lymphatic system, did you talk to your body so. Hello. You chaired, that a very. Exciting. Timeline. For. Human. Mission to Mars and, it seems that you, have a pretty clear idea what are the milestones that, we have to meet and what are the things that we need to know when the things that we need to have in order to meet that deadline. What. Do you think are the main. Things that might go wrong that. Could, force. Us to delay. That. That. Timeline. For a long time right, what. Could delay. Now. Do you mean robotics. Or humans I. Mean. It seems like it's pretty soon yeah, 2030, we're going to Mars. Knowledge. Development, is it is. It funding, is, it I. Mean, what what. Do you see that could, force. Us to take much longer than, we technically, could. Take to get to to, get to Mars yes. In. Other words yes to all the things he. Technology. Funding. But. You know you can have all the money in the world but if you don't have the solutions, or the. Validated.
Designs. Then, you're still sort of in, the middle of the ocean without any oars on. The other hand you, can have amazing, turbo. Oars but. Not have the funding to be able to launch you. On. Those expeditions, so. It's a combination of, things but, so. It is funding, it is. You. Know the engineering. The tools or robotics, the capability. The human system. We. Do have to figure out how to shield, and protect, humans. The. Vehicle, and. The human body itself. And. If we don't we do have to come up with ways of coming, up with how. Do we. Kind, of harvest. Our stem cells in order to re-implant. Our immune system, if we just want to expose ourselves because, one. Big radiation. Hit is actually better than. Having shielding, that might dissipate, it into 50 smaller ones that lasts longer so we have to think about all these things but, I think the biggest limiter, of all is our, ability to think outside the, box, is. Your shirt exactly. Is. The ability to think outside the box, is the ability to. Pursue. That. Which, appears. Impossible. Is, the ability to, inspire. And, enable. And, empower our. Next, generation. Is, our ability to be inclusive, in diverse, so that we can have lots of different solutions, is our. Ability to be collaborative, and to team together. Is, our, ability to dream and to, believe that those dreams have. The power to come true if, we work together as. A team in, teams. Thank. You for two. Things one is of course the life story that you inspire, us and also, for these visions, for the future that should also be very, inspiring thank. You. Thank. You thank, you very much.
2018-04-29 12:26
